Some B.C. LifeLabs locations temporarily close due to strike action

Some B.C. LifeLabs locations will be temporarily closed on a rotating basis starting Thursday as workers strike. 

The B.C. General Employees' Union (BCGEU), which represents about 1,200 workers at LifeLabs throughout the province, issued a 72-hour strike notice on Monday following months of unsuccessful negotiations between the union and the company. 

Patients can visit the LifeLabs location finder to check the status of each location. Four locations in Vancouver were closed Thursday, and a different four are scheduled to be closed in the city on Friday. 

LifeLabs has said it will continue to operate as a designated essential service but confirmed some patient service centres will be closed on a rotating basis. 

"We will do everything in our control to minimize the disruption this creates for our customers and clients," LifeLabs said in a statement.

WATCH | LifeLabs workers take to picket lines: 

Lifelabs workers begin strike action at several B.C. locations

15 hours ago

Duration 2:07

18 LifeLabs patient service centres were closed in B.C. on Thursday due to job action. The closures will rotate between various locations across the province. As Pinki Wong reports, the workers are asking for better pay and more predictable scheduling.

LifeLabs workers are paid between four and 16 per cent less than hospital workers that do the same job, according to Mandy de Fields, bargaining chair for the BC General Employees' Union (BCGEU). 

"We see skilled professionals leaving every day for higher paying jobs," De Fields said while picketing on Thursday. 

She said understaffing has also caused workers to be overworked and stressed during shifts. 

De Fields said LifeLab workers deliver important results that shape the decisions doctors make in patient care, and it is important employees have good working conditions to ensure these results are accurate. 

"They are worked to the bone. They have nothing left to give," she said. 

More than a thousand LifeLabs workers across B.C. walked off the job to kick off job action on Sunday, demanding wage parity with hospital laboratory employees performing similar work. 

The workers say they have been without a contract since April 1, 2024. 

when Leonardo Redavid showed up at a Vancouver LifeLab for blood tests Thursday, he was surprised to find it closed. 

After learning about in the strike, Redavid said he supports the workers. 

"It's hard to make ends meet sometimes here," he said. "You've got to have a fair wage."